Men With Anorexia
Anorexia is often thought of as a female problem but men can suffer from anorexia too and there are more men diagnosed with anorexia than you might think. It is reported that one in every six people diagnosed with anorexia are men. Today there are over 8 million people suffering from eating disorders and over 1 million of them are men and over 7 million are women. It is also stated that there are many more people with an eating disorder today than there has been in the past. Weight seems to be such a big issue today that many people decide to diet and do not stop when they reach a healthy weight, they keep going because they feel the need to keep going. Anorexia can take control of the person instead of the person controlling it. After a while they see themselves fat no matter what their weight is. One report says that at least ten percent of the people with eating disorders are men. The studies may be different but there is enough proof to show that it is a problem in men as well as women. Men are faced with the problems of maintaining a perfect body just as a woman is. Eating disorders can begin in boys because they want to be athletic and compete in sports. Many times a coach will push the athletics with extreme exercising and stressing that they eat less or eat only low calorie and low fat foods. When the boys get used to this routine, they can keep going and take it to extreme and lose too much weight but in their mind they are still fat or overweight. Parents, teachers, and coaches should be aware of the signs and symptoms of an eating disorder so the person can get help in the early stages of anorexia. If it goes too long there can be very serious health consequences and even death in some cases.
Some of the signs and symptoms of anorexia are lack of eating or eating very little, making excuses not to eat, cutting food into small pieces to eat it, spitting out food after they chew it, loss of weight, wearing baggy clothes or layers of clothes to hide the weight loss, fatigue, dizziness, fainting, brittle nails, abnormal blood counts, thinning hair or hair that breaks or falls out, soft hair covering the body, absence of menstruation (in females), decreased testosterone (in males), dry skin, constipation, intolerance of cold, irregular heart beats, low blood pressure, dehydration, and osteoporosis. There are also emotional problems such as excessive exercise, lack of emotion, trouble concentrating, a preoccupation with food, weighing themselves often, checking the mirror often for flaws, and complaining about being fat.
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